Record ruling is a letdown for Polar balloonist

When is a record not a record? To David Hempleman-Adams, the British balloonist, being the first person to survive temperatures of minus-40C in an open wicker basket as he flew 1,500 miles across the ice over the North Pole certainly felt like a world accomplishment. So he thought, along with millions of other people.

When is a record not a record? To David Hempleman-Adams, the British balloonist, being the first person to survive temperatures of minus-40C in an open wicker basket as he flew 1,500 miles across the ice over the North Pole certainly felt like a world accomplishment. So he thought, along with millions of other people.

But yesterday, Guinness World Records declared his claim to be the first person to fly over the geographic Pole would not stand, because he would have had to fly within one metre of a (theoretical) laser beam aimed in the air from the Pole.

Instead, at the mercy of the gusting arctic winds, he missed that point by 14.91 miles, although he did set a new world record and two British records.

A crestfallen Mr Hempleman-Adams said: "Guinness work with definite points but in the real world you can't do that. Their argument is that you would have to get within one metre of a laser beam pointing up from the exact spot. No one will ever get closer than I did. It's an absolute impossibility."

The decision has appalled the British Balloon and Airship Club (BBAC), which is backing Mr Hempleman-Adams. Barbara Moreton, a senior BBAC observer, insisted he was the official record-breaker. She said: "Having examined the documentation, I can confirm he has achieved the first flight in a balloon from land over the North Pole."

But Neil Hayes, a spokesman for Guinness World Records, said: "We're in the business of recording feats which can be repeated and broken. Imagine - and I know it's not likely - but imagine if we had said this flight was the first over the North Pole, then next year someone came along and got within 10 miles of the Pole. They're closer, so surely they would deserve the record?"

But he said Mr Hempleman-Adams's accomplishment was "amazing", adding: "I can't imagine this getting beaten for a very, very long time. I don't really think we're doing him out of anything."

The explorer had to carry a gun to ward off polar bears, spent 132 hours in the air, slept for nine hours in six days, suffered cravings for cold pizza, almost sleepwalked out of the basket while hundreds of feet up, and survived a crash landing that dragged him for 20 minutes.

"We have given him the record for the closest balloon flight to 90 degrees north from a land mass," Mr Hayes said. "He also set British records for the greatest distance flown by a balloon and greatest distance flown by a solo balloonist."

All those records, of course, can be broken - but the prize of being the first to do something remains for all time.

Mr Hempleman-Adams has endured 35 expeditions, many of them solo feats. In 1998 he completed the adventurer's "grand sam" by conquering all four arctic poles and the highest peaks in all seven continents. Last year, he had to be rescued after being forced to abandon a 25-day, 250-mile solo trek on foot to the North Pole.

His record bid was to recreate the doomed Arctic flight of three Swedes in 1897. The deep-frozen bodies of Salomon Andree, Knut Fraenkel and Nils Strindberg were discovered 30 years later, with records and photos of the flight.